Why Is It That Everyone Would Rather Follow Behind Societies Ideals, Then To Just Be Themselves?

Not everyone, just some people that have no imagination and do not know their own minds. They are deluded to the fact that societies ideals are right for everyone, and most of the time they are not right for anyone.

By being yourself  you are showing people who you really are, and that is scary because you are making yourself vulnerable & open to being hurt & rejected
and if those people don't like who you are then, your feelings are hurt.

But

if you are just following society & "the crowd" then you can copy others & make yourself into someone/thing that you know they already like or even love
   and if someone doesn't like what you made yourself into, then you can brush it off and say to yourself "it doesn't matter because that's not the real me."



insecurity and fear of rejection/pain   cause people to not be who they really are



also

if those people who are brave enough to be themselves are too different, then they are outcasted, ridiculed, laughed at; they are the target of jokes, pranks, anger and hate
because making fun of someone else and knowing of someone else's failures/faults makes insecure people feel better about themselves

Because they don't know how to be themselves,it's a sad truth.-Trey

My opinion is people feel they will be rejected by society for not following the typical path.  Like the poem "the path less traveled".   I myself am just fine starting my own path.  Society doesn't always make the right decision even if that's what they want you to think